Post navigation

Swept away by Sharknado: Taking a bite out of our shark fears

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year (if you have, congrats! You made it back!) you’ve probably heard of a little genius of a film called Sharknado(playing this Friday, August 8 in the Wortham Giant Screen Theatre).

As the title implies, it’s about sharks and tornadoes — more specifically, water spouts off the coast of southern California which wreak havoc on L.A. as they flood the city while simultaneously picking up and distributing ravenous airborne man-eating sharks — and a motley crew, including the one and only Tara Reid, who defies the terror of the sharks to save the day. It’s a classic tale of guy meets girl, guy and girl fall in love, guy and girl get divorced, sharks attack, guy gets girl back.

Now I must admit I was a little apprehensive of the film when I first heard of it. As a child who saw Jaws too soon (also showing in the GST this month), as you may have been as well, you hear the word “SHARK” and feel something like this…

And who can blame you?! Negative images of sharks are everywhere. But they actually haven’t been around for all that long. At the turn of the 20th century, most people believed that sharks had never attacked a human being. Now, we know that occasionally this does happen. There were 7 people who died from shark attacks in the world in 2012 (meaning your chance of being one of those people is literally less than one in a BILLION). Compare that to the 33,561 people who died in car accidents in the U.S. in 2012. So the early 20th century perception is actually closer to the truth than modern perceptions (most people believe their risk of getting eaten by a shark to be much, much higher).

So what happened?

In the summer of 1916 there was a horrifying case of a rogue great white shark that ate several people along the New Jersey coast, and the event received a lot of press. Then during WWII, stories of shipwrecked sailors and others stranded in the ocean getting eaten by sharks began to permeate popular culture. All of which helped to set the stage for Jaws to come along and scare the pants off America.

In this movie, Spielberg really hit a chord with American audiences; just think about how much this movie has seeped into our collective consciousness. Everything from the opening music, Baaa-da. Baaa-da. Ba-da ba-da. Ba-da-ba-da-badabada…, to the line (from the sequel’s trailer, mind you) “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…” that sends shivers down our spines.

“So why should we watch Sharknado?” you ask, “Isn’t this just perpetuating irrational fears about getting eaten by sharks?” Perhaps, but consider this: Sharknado presents the perfect way for us to get over our fear of sharks.

By taking this fear and placing it in the most ridiculous context ever, in a low budget B Movie, with a plot full of holes so big you could drive a truck through them, we can remove ourselves enough from the situation to have some perspective. When we watch Sharknadowe can laugh at our fears while watching a rollicking, action-packed film full of spectacle and get swept away (pun intended) into this fantasy world.

Jaws took place in our backyard, Sharknado in some alternate universe where Tara Reid is still an ingénue.

When we leave the theatre we aren’t scared of the world around us, we’re too busy taking in the unabashed ridiculousness of the film, tweeting our friends all the way home.